Angola's arms re-exports worry specialists

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LUANDA, Angola, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Angola's massive arms stocks acquired during its war for independence worry arms proliferation specialists.

"Re-export is a problem generally. It can occur decades after the original deliveries,: Small Arms Survey researcher Glenn McDonald said from Geneva.

"Angola is on the radar at the moment, as it has significant surplus stocks (of weapons)."

In the past five months Angolan authorities have collected more than 80,000 small weapons under a program, which began in 2008, to disarm civilians.

Senior police officer and coordinator of the disarmament committee Paulo de Almeida said, "There are still weapons in civilian hands, a situation that worries us because people continue to die and commit crimes with these weapons in Angola."

There were an estimated 2 million small arms in circulation in Angola at the end of the civil war in 2002.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute arms trade database states that during the period 1982-91, Angola was the eighth largest receipt of Soviet armaments, primarily light infantry weapons, including a massive number of AK-47s.